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My childhood experiences with pets is not what I would call positive ones. One fish jumped out of the bowl and died. Another fish was found frozen to death after my brothers put him outside in the 20 degree weather to “cool off”. And another fish that maybe died of natural causes?? Not too sure, I think I was already too scarred from the prior two fish experiences. Besides the fish, we had some rabbits that we kept in a large cage in the back yard. I was very young when we had the rabbits and the two things I remember about them was 1) I loved going outside to look at them and occasionally hold them. 2) One day they were gone and my parents said they got out of the cage and must have gotten eaten by the neighborhood cats. Speaking of cats, we finally convinced my dad to let us get one. He is terribly allergic to most animals, especially cats. However, some family friends had just got a beautiful Persian Himalayan cat and they are supposed to be somewhat hypoallergenic. So after a lot of begging and pleading, we got a cat! Sedrick Fitzgerald Satterfield. We loved him. I held him in my lap and sang songs to him, which I’m sure he loved wink wink, while my boring ol’ brothers played basketball. We got to love on him for about a week or two and then my parents decided it wasn’t working. He was the only cat in the history of cats who had trouble finding the litter box so they found him a new home. And that was it. That was my upbringing and history with pets. So while I like them and enjoy them, I’ve not considered myself a pet person and never had experience with things like house training.

After our middle son was born, my husband and I decided it was time to get our first dog. What better time for an inexperienced pet owner to get a new puppy than shortly after having a new baby, right? We chose an adorable little Jack Russel since “Frasier” taught me how smart they can be. Long story short is we decided we were not ready and it was not the right time for us to manage a new puppy in the house. Fortunately a co-worker and very excellent doggy momma had a lot of land with 2 other Jack Russells so Zoe went to a very good home.

Fast forward 3 years…. We inherited a Shih Tzu from my grandmother who had moved into a nursing home and couldn’t take Mopsi with her. We had Mopsi for about a year, during which time we also had 2 cats, a new baby and some major postpartum depression. Needless to say, having a dog once again did not work out for us. Our babysitter at the time loved Mopsi so we were grateful that she went to a very good home as well.

So our dog experience as a family has been more of a foster system than a forever home. Since then, we’ve been looking for the right time and the right dog. Our middle son has been begging for a puppy for the past year but he’s also allergic to dogs so with our history and his allergies, we’ve learned that we need a dog who is:

Hypoallergenic

Not too big, not too small

Adorable and playful

Doesn’t have high energy needs

Female

Good with kids

I’ve continually checked adoption sites and breeder sites over the past year or two but haven’t found the perfect fit. Then several weeks ago, it happened. I fell in love with a puppy and she met all of our criteria. Well, all except one. Her price. We never saw ourselves spending a lot of money for a dog, especially when there are a million puppies you can get for free or a small fee. But based on our past mis-matchings, we didn’t want to lose the chance to get this doggy that seemed so perfect for our family. So we took the plunge and we got her – Myah Scarlett Princess Fluffy Turtle, Myah for short.

As I was reflecting on how much money we spent on her, I was thinking about what that says about her value to us. Please don’t get me wrong here, she is just as valuable with or without the price tag attached but the money signifies the tangible investment we’ve made. I then realized if I can more clearly see her value and our commitment to her because of money we paid, how much more value must Jesus see in me since He paid his life. Myah’s price tag has dollars on it, my price tag has Jesus’ life. What does that say about my worth to Him? It is almost impossible to comprehend but I can say with certainty that is not the kind of payment you walk away from. He’s in it for the long run and we are beyond valuable and precious to Him.